El asunto de un cuasi-regalo
Chavez links with Cuba fuel US fight

By FT Reporters

Published: March 30, 2004

Venezuelan opponents of Hugo Chavez think they have found a new ally in
their struggle to oust the country's president - Florida's politically
powerful Cuban-American community.

Cuban-Americans have their own reason for disliking Mr Chavez: the
53,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil that flow to Cuba daily, which Cuba
analysts call a "lifeline" for Mr Castro.

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Within the last 10 days, Mr Chavez has agreed to a 68 per cent increase
in Mr Castro's oil ration, to 78,000 barrels a day, according to Jaime
Suchlicki, director of the Institute of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
at the University of Miami. There were also rumours among Miami Cubans
that Mr Castro was being permitted to resell some oil, said Prof Suchlicki.

"It's something that Cuban-Americans think is important," said Joe
Garcia, executive director of the Cuban-American National Foundation.
"Venezuela is right now the biggest subsidiser of Cuba's economy."

Meanwhile, Mr Chavez, a militaristic populist who considers Mr Castro
his political mentor, appears to have strong-armed his way out of an
opposition bid to hold a recall referendum and thrown several people in
jail.

Opponents of Mr Chavez said last week that 18 people had been imprisoned
for political reasons in the past month.

While the Cuban-American community empathises with Venezuelan-Americans,
they are concerned for another reason: political strife has prompted an
influx of as many as 200,000 Venezuelans into south Florida over the
past two years. As Mr Garcia put it, the Venezuelans "are here to stay
if conditions stay the way they are in Venezuela now".

Venezuela's political ructions could play a role in November's US
elections. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, strongly
criticised Mr Chavez in a statement this month.

Pundits saw that as an attempt to compete for Mr Bush's traditional base
of support among Cuban-American voters and a signal Mr Kerry would
pursue an energetic Latin America policy.

"President Chavez's policies have been detrimental to our interests and
those of his neighbours," Mr Kerry said. "His close relationship with
Fidel Castro has raised serious questions about his commitment to
leading a truly democratic government."

Only two weeks earlier Mr Chavez had praised Mr Kerry and called him a
friend.

"The Bush administration has abdicated significant leadership on the
issue of democracy in Latin America, especially in Venezuela," said
Julia Sweig, deputy director of the Latin America programme at the
Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.

A further complication for President George W. Bush is high gasoline
prices. Renewed civil strife in Venezuela, the US's fourth-largest
supplier, could further disrupt the flow of oil.

Mr Chavez last month threatened to cut off the US's oil supplies if the
Bush administration attempted to topple him. Another sharp price rise at
the start of the summer travel season would do little for Mr Bush's
popularity on the campaign trail.

Perhaps it is little surprise then that support for Mr Bush among
potential Hispanic voters, at least in Florida, appears soft.

"It's difficult for Bush to point out one area where his foreign policy
is working," said one Cuban-American political strategist. "He said:
'I'm going to be Latin America's best friend,' and there's been a total
collapse."

During the presidential election in 2000, Mr Bush won the state of
Florida by only 537 votes, even though more than four-fifths of
Florida's 500,000 Cuban Americans voted for him.

The strategist said the White House was "searching for Elian", referring
to Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy whose controversial repatriation by the
Clinton administration enraged Cuban-Americans. "They're trying to find
some issue that galvanises the Cuban-American community, and they can't.
They can't because they've done nothing."

Maylin Silva, a Venezuelan lawyer based in Miami, was one of the
organisers of a rally in Miami last weekend that sought to link the
Cuban and Venezuelan leaders as sponsors of terrorism. She said she
liked Mr Kerry's hard line, adding: "If Kerry wins, it's possible
something could change for Venezuela."

If Mr Kerry can convince Cuban-Americans that the road to Havana runs
through Caracas, that could prove a speed bump in Mr Bush's drive back
to the White House.

Reporting by Henry Hamman in Miami, Andy Webb-Vidal in Caracas and
Salamander Davoudi in Washington

El control de OPEP y Chavez
OPEC's Production Controls Champion

Summary

Venezuela is the strongest advocate of production controls within
OPEC because its rapidly falling crude oil production capacity
means the only way the Chavez government can sustain fiscal
solvency is to keep pushing for more production cuts -- and thus
higher oil prices.

Analysis

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is the most hawkish advocate of
tight production controls within the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries. As global demand for crude oil increases
over the next couple years -- driven mainly by economic growth in
China and the United States -- Chavez likely will lobby even more
strongly for OPEC production controls.

Chavez has become the foremost defender of production cuts
because Venezuela's oil production capacity steadily is
declining, meaning the only way Venezuela can maximize its oil
earnings is through production cuts that drive up oil prices.
Output capacity fell about 19 percent in 2003 and has continued
to drop in the first quarter of 2004.

The real extent of falling production capacity at state oil firm
Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) has been masked by the increasing
production of privately owned or operated ventures in Venezuela.
However, these increases will end by 2005 unless the foreign
companies operating these projects launch major new investments
this year. This is unlikely, given changes in Venezuelan oil and
tax laws that have made private investment in new oil projects
less attractive in the near term.

Senior Venezuelan officials such as Energy Minister Rafael
Ramirez and PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez have been claiming for
nearly a year that Venezuela fully has recovered from an oil
strike that literally shut down the oil industry in December 2002
and January 2003. Both officials recently said Venezuela produces
close to 3.3 million barrels per day of crude oil, but this
estimate is wildly inflated.

The Chavez government might not know how much oil Venezuela is
actually producing because PDVSA's ability to compile and
interpret statistical data was an early casualty of the
government's dismissal of more than 18,000 managers and workers
in 2003. It is more likely, however, that Ramirez and Rodriguez
are knowingly disseminating false production data in an effort to
hide the severity of PDVSA's mounting production, financial and
management difficulties.

Energy market analysts with OPEC, the Paris-based International
Energy Agency (IEA), private oil traders and former PDVSA
production and marketing managers all agree that PDVSA's real
crude oil production currently averages about 2.5 million bpd to
2.6 million bpd. These estimates are between 600,000 bpd and
700,000 bpd lower than the Chavez government claims PDVSA is
producing.

Venezuela's OPEC quota as of April 1 was 2.7 million bpd, meaning
PDVSA and its private associates already are producing between
100,000 bpd and 200,000 bpd below the country's output quota.
However, the decline in PDVSA's output capacity is actually more
acute than even OPEC and IEA estimates indicate.

During February 2004, mainly foreign private companies -- working
in Venezuela under so-called marginal field operating agreements
and large-scale strategic associations -- produced about 496,000
bpd and 480,000 bpd, respectively. PDVSA's direct output averaged
1.59 million bpd, the lowest level in the company's history since
its creation in 1976 as a result of a presidential decree that
nationalized the oil industry. In fact, former PDVSA managers
estimate the company has lost more than 1 million bpd of its own
production capacity since Chavez became president of Venezuela in
January 1999.

Stratfor forecast the slow collapse in PDVSA's production
capacity at the end of January 2003 as the two-month oil strike
ended. At the time, we forecast that the combined impact of a
massive personnel purge within PDVSA and the near-total shutdown
of Venezuela's oil fields would substantially damage the
country's oil production capacity. Stratfor's forecast was
accurate, albeit with a slight caveat: The core cause of the
sustained decline in Venezuelan oil production capacity is that
the Chavez government since 1999 has stripped PDVSA of the cash
it needs to make the investments needed to maintain capacity.

Venezuela's oil fields on average have a natural depletion rate
of between 20 percent and 24 percent annually. This is because
many operational oil fields in the western region of the country
are 50 to 80 years old; the older a field becomes, the more
investment it needs to sustain output capacity levels.

In 1997, PDVSA invested more than $5.7 billion in maintaining and
expanding output capacity. By 2000 the total invested had dropped
to less than $2.5 billion; in 2003, PDVSA invested hardly
anything. That problem has continued in 2004 and likely will
persist in 2005.

PDVSA President Rodriguez recently announced that PDVSA and its
foreign partners would invest $37 billion over the next five
years to raise Venezuela's total crude oil production to 5
million bpd by 2009. Of this amount, PDVSA would invest $27
billion, and the remaining $10 billion would come from foreign
oil companies.

With 78 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves and 148
trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Venezuela clearly has the
natural potential to maintain and even expand its ranking as one
of the world's top five oil exporters. However, the output
capacity plans announced by Rodriguez are not credible in the
near to medium term.

PDVSA likely does not have the cash reserves to carry out its
part in planned production capacity increases without resorting
to major new borrowing. However, PDVSA's future borrowings may
come with very high interest rates and risk premiums if external
auditing firm KPMG refuses to validate the company's 2003
financial statements. The financial statements are supposed to be
published between March and June 2004; PDVSA is required to file
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission because its
affiliate PDV America is the sole owner of U.S. oil firm Citgo.

A source with a competing multinational accounting firm with
offices in Caracas told Stratfor on April 13 that KPMG could be
reluctant to green-light PDVSA's 2003 financial statements
because the company's internal financial controls collapsed in
the wake of the strike in early 2003. If KPMG were to approve
financial data that later is shown to be false, it would be in
violation of both SEC rules and the 2002 Sarbanes Oxley Act that
imposes criminal sanctions on accounting fraud and other
corporate crimes. On the other hand, truthful financials will
hurt PDVSA's credit rating, affecting its ability to borrow the
money for expansion.

The Chavez government is counting on private oil companies to
fork over at least $10 billion to underwrite its planned capacity
expansion over the next five years. Private industry sources in
Caracas, however, said that if the Chavez government does not
reverse changes in oil and tax laws that made oil investments
less attractive for private companies, it is unlikely that
private firms would invest the full $10 billion.

Implications in the near to medium term are that PDVSA's crude
output capacity will continue to decline, and Chavez will lobby
even more aggressively over the next two years for OPEC
production quotas to keep oil prices high. In the longer term,
however, foreign oil companies interested in developing
Venezuela's oil and gas potential profitably will bide their time
and wait until geopolitical circumstances force Chavez to make
his oil policies more friendly, or until someone friendlier to
private investment replaces Chavez as president.

Democracia...la pobre democracia
Latin America Losing Hope in Democracy, Report Says

April 22, 2004
By WARREN HOGE

UNITED NATIONS, April 21 - A majority of Latin Americans
say they would support the replacement of a democratic
government with an "authoritarian" one if it could produce
economic benefits, according to a United Nations report
released Wednesday in Lima, Peru.

The report, a harsh self-analysis compiled by Latin
Americans, says that the region, which has succeeded in
freeing itself from a long history of military coups and
dictatorships, is facing a new challenge to democratic rule
because of popular disenchantment with its elected
governments.

Created by the United Nations Development Program, the
report looked at 18 nations and conducted opinion surveys
of 18,643 citizens and lengthy interviews with 231
political, economic, social and cultural figures, including
41 current or former presidents and vice presidents.

Fifty-five percent of the people polled said they would
support the replacement of a democratic government with an
authoritarian one; 58 percent said they agreed that leaders
should "go beyond the law" if they have to, and 56 percent
said they felt that economic development was more important
than maintaining democracy.

"This shows that democracy is not something that has taken
hold of people's minds as strongly as we had thought it
would," said Enrique Berruga Filloy, Mexico's ambassador to
the United Nations.

The report says that while unhappiness with political
leadership has a long history in Latin America, the people
now complaining are faulting democracy itself.

Voter turnout is falling across the region, especially
among the young, while civil unrest is on the rise.

Since 2000, four elected presidents in the 18 countries
surveyed have been forced to step down because of plunges
in public support, and others may now be in peril. The
countries surveyed were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

All of these countries have either introduced or
consolidated electoral democracy over the past 25 years,
emerging from unrepresentative one-party politics or harsh
and repressive military rule. All of them hold regular
elections that meet international standards of fairness and
enjoy a free press and basic civil liberties.

The report acknowledges distinctive circumstances in
individual countries, but it argues that there is a broadly
shared political culture and social structure that
transcends them. "The common denominators of this
phenomenon outweigh the many national differences," it
says.

The report attributes the erosion of confidence in elected
governments to slow economic growth, social inequality and
ineffective legal systems and social services. Despite
gains in human rights from the days of dictatorship, most
Latin Americans, it says, still cannot expect equal
treatment before the law because of abusive police
practices, politicized judiciaries and widespread
corruption.

El eterno problema : reparar o reconfir lo que estaba confirmado
Luis Ugalde:"Burla sangrienta"


NO HAY QUE PERDER TIEMPO discutiendo cosas obvias. Para cualquier
observador objetivo esta a la vista lo que ocurre en Venezuela con las
firmas para el revocatorio presidencial. Del olimpo de Miraflores vino
la orden de eliminar cerca de un millon de firmas y ha sido servilmente
acatada. No tiene sentido preguntarse en serio por las razones.

Yo voy a reparo por "planilla plana", aunque llene los datos
personalmente y firme. Lo mismo ocurre con otras muchas personas a mi
alrededor, vicerrector, decanos, directores, etc., cada una con
pretextos distintos; asi por todo el pais. Las "razones" juridicas y
tecnicas alegadas, las falsificadas listas y las variantes sumas, son
farsa para salvar apariencias y obedecer al caporal; no importa que las
presente la Sala Constitucional cinicamente envueltas en disfraces
juridicos con latinajos o el psiquiatra del CNE.

El Gobierno de sobra sabe que estan las firmas. Lo que el Grupo Carter,
la OEA y otros manifiestan publicamente, felicitandonos por el buen
comportamiento del gobierno y de la oposicion, habla de su buena
educacion diplomatica, pero no da cuenta de la burla sangrienta y
anticonstitucional a que estamos sometidos los venezolanos. Es bueno que
nadie se lleve a enga?o. A muchos, que firmaron constitucionalmente, el
regimen quiere excluirlos criminalmente de su trabajo y reducirlos a
parias disidentes e indocumentados, al estilo de los regimenes
totalitarios como el cubano. Hay un hecho esperanzador: lo burdo y
descarado de las maniobras y la masiva negacion de respeto a las firmas
de la gente ayudan a la claridad, encienden la indignacion y despiertan
conciencias. Exigimos que los lideres esten a la altura, unidos y
conscientes de que el regimen quiere fabricar mas trampas y repetir el
fraude.

Las personas y paises se revelan en situaciones limites: algunos, que
parecian honorables e idealistas, han quedado en evidencia como
autenticos canallas. Pero tambien hay millones de personas que han
demostrado que su conciencia no esta en venta. Conciencia e indignacion,
juntas y generalizadas, tienen mas fuerza que los tanques. Ahi esta la
esperanza. Volveremos a firmar y a actuar hasta lograr el exito en la
defensa de la democracia, el pluralismo, la justicia social y la
dignidad venezolana.

El Tiempo de Bogota esta preocupado
Juan Manuel Santos

El Tiempo de Bogota

Los acontecimientos de esta ultima semana en Venezuela tienden a
confirmar varias hipotesis que a los colombianos nos deben interesar y
preocupar. Nada de lo sucedido debe considerarse como hechos aislados ni
meras coincidencias. Seria la recomendacion de un buen estratega de
inteligencia... dadas las circunstancias.

Voltaire lo pondria de manera cruda: "Piensa mal y acertaras". Pero no
hay que ser ni siquiera malpensados. La manera tan curiosa como se
desarrollo el supuesto complot contra Chavez y el cumulo de
interrogantes sin respuesta logica apuntan cada vez mas en la direccion
de un burdo montaje.

No vale la pena repetir la cantidad de incongruencias, algunas hasta
risibles, que han surgido en la version del Gobierno venezolano. La
opinion publica ya las ha detectado. Lo importante es el contexto y las
razones que habrian llevado al regimen chavista a jugarse semejante carta.

Aqui aparece Maquiavelo y su tajante consejo: mantenerse en el poder a
toda costa. Chavez lo ha seguido al pie de la letra y el costo sera la
democracia. Por eso no puede permitir que el referendo se realice: sin
duda, lo perderia.

Para el Gobierno es imperativo entonces el fracaso del famoso reparo (la
validacion de las firmas), que se realizara a finales de mes. Con todas
las nuevas trampas que le han puesto, seguramente fracasara. Nadie se
explica por que fueron excluidas mas de 350 mil firmas; no se ha
permitido auditoria alguna; ahora se inventaron la figura del
"arrepentimiento"... En fin, Chavez no va a hacer nada diferente a lo
que ha hecho desde el principio: ponerle palos a la rueda del referendo.

Lo grave es que este es el ultimo palo. Si el reparo fracasa no habra
referendo. Desapareceria asi la ultima oportunidad para encontrarle una
salida democratica a la crisis venezolana. Eso lo sabe Chavez. Tambien
lo sabe la oposicion. Se estan jugando los restos. Y nadie sabe que
puede pasar. Muchos anticipan que la hoguera que hoy tiene ardida a
Venezuela se puede convertir en verdadera conflagracion.

Es claro que Chavez se esta anticipando a la reaccion que se le viene
encima cuando no permita que el referendo siga su curso. Y no encontro
mejor manera que buscarle camorra a un fantasma externo, un fantasma
invasor, asesino y macabro habilmente concebido por EEUU, Colombia y los
paramilitares. Se llego a decir hasta que era producto de una alianza
entre Bush y los narcotraficantes. !Vaya ridiculez!

El fantasma cumple dos propositos. Facilita la utilizacion de un
lenguaje cada dia mas agresivo, particularmente contra Colombia, para
buscar unidad interna, sobre todo militar. Es una vieja y conocida
tactica. En segundo lugar, permite utilizar el "complot" de excusa para
acrecentar la represion interna contra sus opositores, como en efecto ha
sucedido.

El Gobierno colombiano ha respondido con inteligencia, prudencia y
diplomacia. Asi tiene que ser. Mas de un sapo ha tenido que tragarse
Uribe en aras de no hacerle el juego a tan cantinflesco pero peligroso
vecino. Lo peor seria caer en la trampa de la provocacion. Pero todo
tiene su limite.

El escenario mas probable, ojala me equivoque, es que despues del 30 de
mayo la situacion en Venezuela se agrave. La OEA y el Centro Carter
tendran que pronunciarse y rendir un informe sobre las razones de su
fracaso. Nadie se imagina que pueda ser favorable al regimen. La
comunidad internacional no podra lavarse las manos y Colombia tendra que
tomar una posicion en defensa de la democracia. No demora algun pais en
invocar la Carta Interamericana.

Mientras tanto, la oposicion tiene que obrar con estrategia y unidad.
Porque, hasta ahora, uno de los mas efectivos aliados de Chavez ha sido
la torpeza opositora. Si vuelven a equivocarse tendremos a Chavez para
largo. Y que Dios los tenga, y nos tenga, de su mano...

Que barbaridad...
Todos se quedaron con la boca abierta. Ni la
clinica El Avila ni la Metropolitana ni el Hospital de Clinicas Caracas
tienen una opinion sobre las declaraciones del Ministro de Salud y
Desarrollo, Roger Capella, quien dijo en Ginebra que Venezuela tiene la
intencion de poner bajo control estatal los organismos privados de
medicina, entre ellos algunas clinicas y compa?ias de seguros.

Los voceros de las clinicas privadas, al ser consultados por Descifrado,
pidieron tiempo para analizar la informacion. Claro...se quedaron patitiesos!!!

Una opinion sobre Chavez y su problema
El problema es que en el fondo a Chavez no le importa ni los venezolanos ni los
pobres. Solamente los nombra y se ocupa de ellos cuando le conviene, cuando le
sirve en su empe?o para permanecer en el poder.
A Chavez le importa mucho mas lo que piense Fidel y la izquierda ultrosa, que lo
que le suceda a los venezolanos. Es su ego, su poder, su resentimiento, su
imagen, etc. lo unico que le interesa. Basta con darse un paseo por los barrios
y calles del casco central de las ciudades para darse cuenta ?Quien se ha
ocupado de los ni?os de la calle, de los indigenas, de los indigentes, de los
minusvalidos, ancianos pensionados, etc? Nadie!!!
Chavez es capaz de sacrificar a quien sea (como Fidel que mando a fusilar a sus
mejores amigo --Ochoa y los De la Guardia, y se desentendio del Che) con tal de
que se haga lo que a el le da la gana. Hay que pensar en los soldados de fuerte
Mara. Estos soldaditos no tenian computadora, ni zapatos Nike, ni conocian
Miami. Chavez es un peon de Fidel, porque Fidel le sirve para arreglarle el
escenario internacional para aparecer como un heroe de los pobres. Ese
discurso anti-yanqui le sirve como parte de ese escenario que le ha sido tan
util a Castro en una epoca; por otra parte, se muere de las ganas de ser
recibido en la Casa Blanca. Ese anti-americanismo bobo es simplemente una pose
ante los medios anti-globalicionistas que estan tan de moda. La izquierda boba
esta dispuesta a apoyar a cualquier loco que hable mal de los americanos. No
es diferente a cuando los americanos estaban dispuestos a apoyar a cualquier
loco con tal de que hablara mal de los comunistas.
A Chavez le importa Chavez! Olvidense de lo demas! y quienes lo acompa?an solo
lo hacen por sus propios intereses!

Saludos,

Carolina Iribarren

Asi opina el Rector de la Universidad Catolica
Luis Ugalde:"Burla sangrienta"


NO HAY QUE PERDER TIEMPO discutiendo cosas obvias. Para cualquier
observador objetivo esta a la vista lo que ocurre en Venezuela con las
firmas para el revocatorio presidencial. Del olimpo de Miraflores vino
la orden de eliminar cerca de un millon de firmas y ha sido servilmente
acatada. No tiene sentido preguntarse en serio por las razones.

Yo voy a reparo por "planilla plana", aunque llene los datos
personalmente y firme. Lo mismo ocurre con otras muchas personas a mi
alrededor, vicerrector, decanos, directores, etc., cada una con
pretextos distintos; asi por todo el pais. Las "razones" juridicas y
tecnicas alegadas, las falsificadas listas y las variantes sumas, son
farsa para salvar apariencias y obedecer al caporal; no importa que las
presente la Sala Constitucional cinicamente envueltas en disfraces
juridicos con latinajos o el psiquiatra del CNE.

El Gobierno de sobra sabe que estan las firmas. Lo que el Grupo Carter,
la OEA y otros manifiestan publicamente, felicitandonos por el buen
comportamiento del gobierno y de la oposicion, habla de su buena
educacion diplomatica, pero no da cuenta de la burla sangrienta y
anticonstitucional a que estamos sometidos los venezolanos. Es bueno que
nadie se lleve a enga?o. A muchos, que firmaron constitucionalmente, el
regimen quiere excluirlos criminalmente de su trabajo y reducirlos a
parias disidentes e indocumentados, al estilo de los regimenes
totalitarios como el cubano. Hay un hecho esperanzador: lo burdo y
descarado de las maniobras y la masiva negacion de respeto a las firmas
de la gente ayudan a la claridad, encienden la indignacion y despiertan
conciencias. Exigimos que los lideres esten a la altura, unidos y
conscientes de que el regimen quiere fabricar mas trampas y repetir el
fraude.

Las personas y paises se revelan en situaciones limites: algunos, que
parecian honorables e idealistas, han quedado en evidencia como
autenticos canallas. Pero tambien hay millones de personas que han
demostrado que su conciencia no esta en venta. Conciencia e indignacion,
juntas y generalizadas, tienen mas fuerza que los tanques. Ahi esta la
esperanza. Volveremos a firmar y a actuar hasta lograr el exito en la
defensa de la democracia, el pluralismo, la justicia social y la
dignidad venezolana.

Opinion of John Kerry
UNION RADIO - The democratic candidate to the presidency of the United States of America, John Kerry, declared this Wednesday in an interview carried out by the chain in Spanish Univision, that "Venezuela himself about quickly to a
dictatorship". Kerry indicated
that it is necessary the execution of a plebiscito to avoid that in Venezuela continue the deterioration of the democratic system in the country.

"I believe that it is directed hasty to be converted exactly in that", it said Kerry in the chain in Spanish Univision when the journalist it asked
him if Chavez "already is a dictator".

This it would not be the first statement carried out by the democratic candidate against the president Hugo Chavez, therefore
already in the month of March indicated that it is necessary the execution of a revoking referendum in Venezuela. "During his
mandate, the president Chavez has undermined repeatedly the democratic institutions utilizing extra-legal media, included
political imprisonments, to consolidate to be able", he stated John Kerry, the passed month of March.

Cuba: 40 a?os de estancamiento
Ud. sabia que en Cuba la libreta de
racionamiento se calcula para 1800 calorias, y
que muchos productos de la libreta son puras
fantasias y otras dependen de la cosecha?

Ud. sabia que hace 4 a?os la libreta de
racionamiento era de 1600 calorias, y hubo una
epidemia de enfermedades mentales y ni?os
nacidos defectuosos, y que Fidel culpo a la CIA
de una presunta guerra biologica, y que la OMS
Organizacion Mundial de la Salud) determino que era un problema de AVITAMINOSIS, por falta de vitaminas y proteinas en el racionamiento, y
la OMS envio pastillas multi-vitaminicas a
Cuba, y el racionamiento tuvieron que subirlo
a 1800 calorias?.

?Ud. sabia que en Cuba no se consigue, ni es
incluido en la libreta de racionamiento el
PAPEL TOILETTE, JABON, TOALLAS SANITARIAS Y LECHE PARA ADULTOS, entre otras cosas?

Ud. sabia que en Cuba esta prohibido el acceso
al INTERNET, que es delito que se castiga con
prision leer algo que no permita el regimen y
escuchar radios y ver TV extranjeras, y que es
delito opinar libremente, y que los Comite de
Defensa de la Revolucion, que funcionan en cada cuadra, llevan un registro de las actividades de todos los vecinos y que Ud. y su familia se las verian muy mal si consideran que Uds. son sospechosos de no apoyar al sistema?.

Ud. sabe que en Cuba las tuberias de agua estan vencidas y destartaladas y mas del 50% de los hogares no reciben agua directa, que el agua, donde llega, es solo por horas, y que los
camiones de reparto de agua "la Pipa", solo van
una vez por semana para que llenen sus
"mondongueras"?.

?Ud. sabia que la electricidad solo llega por
horas, donde llega, y que los apagones son
constantes todos los dias, da?ando los pocos
equipos electricos que aun existen?.

Ud. sabia que Fidel justifica su revolucion con
sus presuntos exitos en salud y educacion, pero
Ud. sabia que en salud solo ocupan, segun las
estadisticas mas recientes de la OMS, el puesto
# 5 de Latinoamerica, detras de Chile,
Argentina, Uruguay, entre otros, y apenas 2
puestos antes de Venezuela, que estamos en el #7?.

Ud. sabia que en educacion Cuba esta detras de Chile, Argentina, Uruguay y Costa Rica, segun la UNESCO?. Nota: Ud. puede verificar las estadisticas de la UNESCO y OMS por Internet.

Ud. sabia que en el convenio Cuba-USA firmado a raiz de la multiplicacion de balseros, USA
recibe anualmente en forma legal 22 mil
cubanos, y que las listas de la Seccion de
Intereses de USA en La Habana, tiene
registrados mas de 700 mil aspirantes a irse, a
pesar de que, a quien fichan pidiendo puesto en
la lista sufre las peores represalias, lo botan
de los trabajos, les mandan a los hijos a
escuelas especiales de re-educacion
revolucionaria, etc.?

Ud. sabia que a pesar de todo, quien tenga
acceso a una embarcacion y consiga una brujula, se lanza al "mar de la felicidad" huyendo de aquel infierno?.

Ud. sabia que Fidel usa como excusa de su
tremendo fracaso un presunto bloqueo del
imperialismo, cuando su Canciller Perez Roque
se jacta de que Cuba tiene relaciones
comerciales con 115 paises, y que recibe
creditos preferenciales de la Banca de la Union
Europea, y que realmente lo que pasa es que
Cuba no tiene nada que vender, ni con que
pagar, que sus industrias son muy atrasadas en
tecnologia, con excesiva burocracia por el
enorme desempleo, que son improductivas y no
pueden competir internacionalmente yque son
dirigidas por lideres politicos y personajes
fieles a la revolucion en vez de una Gerencia
Profesional?

Ud. sabia que Cuba no tiene con que pagarle a
Venezuela el Credito-Regalo petrolero de
Chavez, y el presunto pago, es otro
Prestamo-Regalo de Chavez, enviando pacientes a los destartalados hospitales habaneros, donde el equipamiento es muy pobre porque no tienen como pagar por los avanzados equipos modernos de los "imperialistas"?.

Sabia Ud. que las JINETERAS, prostitutas
cubanas, son el mas moderno ejemplo de la nueva moral revolucionaria?

?Ud. sabia que Cuba es el ultimo
reducto de un sistema que fue sacado a patadas por el pueblo en los paises de Europa Oriental, y que los habitantes de esos paises consideran que aquello fue una pesadilla que no quieren recordar jamas, y que los Partidos Comunistas avergonzados y despreciados, se cambiaron de nombre para enga?ar con otra mascara?

?Sabia Ud. que despues de hablar tan mal del "neoliberalismo salvaje", Cuba ha aceptado que las trasnacionales hoteleras se instalen en sus costa de Varadero y que se les permite que sus dividendos en dolares sean repatriados a sus paises de origen. O sea: que la necesidad la pintan calva...y en el momento de la verdad no importa la ideologia ni nada que se le parezca. Viva la retorica y la falsificacion de preferencias....